Bo Nix now has 25 games as an NFL starting quarterback under his belt. He’s gone 15-10 in those games as the Broncos’ leader on offense, and has put together a handful of memorable performances with a few forgettable ones sprinkled in. With head coach Sean Payton by his side to mentor him into what some hope will be a modern version of Drew Brees — Payton’s main QB in New Orleans for a decade and a half — Nix has plenty of resources around him to blossom into a great quarterback.
The comparisons to Brees are easy to make. They both like to take the easy throws, they play on time and on schedule in the pocket, and they have Sean Payton in their ear coaching them along. While Nix is still a far ways away from becoming even a shell of one of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks, he’s shown some flashes of what his game could look like down the road, but he just hasn’t doesn’t it consistently.
There is one thing that Nix does better than Brees, running the ball. Nix is a far more talented runner than Brees was, and has shown that his legs can be a lethal weapon for this offense when used in the right spot. In Sunday’s win over the New York Giants, Nix scored a go-ahead touchdown late thanks to his scrambling ability, his second of the day.
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Payton explained the advantages of having Nix carry the ball and how that creates new lanes for the offense to attack.
“It’s really just math. When he [Nix] is the quarterback, you’re playing 10 versus 11 in the run game. When he becomes a running back, you kind of get that number back. We had a couple design quarterback runs. Of course, the one that he scores on is a crack play. So when the back’s released and the three receivers are releasing, you have one on the crack block. Now, if I ran that same play and tossed it to a runner, I wouldn’t have that same gap advantage, if that makes sense,” Payton said in a conference call Monday.
The gap advantage is the most important part of effectively utilizing the quarterback run game. Whether it’s by using the running back as a decoy, like the Broncos did on this specific play, or using him as a lead blocker, someone on the defense has to go with him and is responsible for accounting for him. That leaves one less player that Nix has to evade if everything is blocked correctly.
Nix’s 48 yards on the ground were a season-high through seven games, while his five rushing attempts was one of the lower marks of the season. Last season, he only had one game in which he recorded double-digit rush attempts, a 33-10 win over the Saints. He finished with 75 yards on the ground in that contest, a number that’s still his career high.
While this running ability from Nix has been unveiled in short stints, Payton hasn’t let the young buck use it to his full potential. Especially in moments when the offense is struggling — a sight that Broncos Country has had their eyes burned by far too often this season — Nix’s legs can add another element to the game that can keep the chains moving. Whether it’s on a zone read, a designed run, or a scramble, there will be more positives that come from him running the football than negatives.